Holiday gifts for your favorite foodie

Sure, you could always go the snowflake-dish towel route or bestow a bottle of bubbly with a sprig of mistletoe. Yawn.

If you really want to please your favorite gourmet, you'll opt for one of these cool gift ideas instead, because there's something here for everyone, from cookbook devotee to toque-topped toddler.

Cookbooks for Bay Area foodies

Don't let the cover of "Bouchon Bakery" (Artisan Books, $50, 400 pages) fool you with its nostalgic cookie propped against a glass of milk, complete with striped straw. This collection of 150 recipes by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel is so heavy, you could bench-press it. That's probably a good thing, because you'll need serious exercise after noshing your way through its 400 oversized, photo-filled pages of ethereal macarons, cocoa nib tarts and croissants.

We can't wait to try the recipes for Oreo-inspired TKOs, or the Dutch Crunch Demi-Baguettes, which Keller likes to fill with rare roast beef, tomatoes, red onions and watercress.

This year has brought the release of at least five books by top-notch "Top Chef" contestants. But the book that's guaranteed to delight any recipient is "Beginnings: My Way to Start a Meal" (Olive Press, $25, 192 pages), by Chris Cosentino, executive chef at San Francisco's Incanto and winner of the most recent season of Bravo's "Top Chef Masters." The book offers an array of enticing, creative starters -- an Asian pear, lardo and rose thyme starter, for example, and a persimmon and watercress salad -- that are both doable and dazzling.

Wine and spirits recipients fall into one of several categories: Those who appreciate the latest gizmos, those who just want a bottle and those who want a gift that stimulates the intellect as well as the palate.

"The Drops of God" is Tadashi Agi's best-selling graphic novel that follows the competition between two brothers as they search for 13 sublime bottles of wine in order to inherit their late father's estate. In the fourth installment, "The Drops of God: New World" (Vertical, 365 pages, $14.95) Shizuku and Issei travel outside Europe to the Napa Valley and Australia in search of a wine "created from man's toil and sense of purpose." This detective story-meets-wine-guide is really a romantic coming-of-age tale that will delight your wine enthusiast.

Five essential bitters in a Bitter Truth travel pack ($19.99) make a great starter set for any cocktail buff.

This wine-themed board game, "Winerd: The Wine Game that Crushes Grape Fears" ($35), combines trivia and tasting while leaving out the intimidation factor.

The first of its kind, this Mariposa Agave Nectar Liqueur ($25) is made from agave nectar, tequila and vodka, and enhanced with rose oil and gardenia.

Treats for pint-size foodies

Do your miniature gourmands prefer Gruyere to cheddar? A baguette over PB&J?

Move over, Fisher Price. IKEA's version of the kid kitchen is sleek, sophisticated and so realistic it promises hours of play time -- for both of you. The Duktig Mini-Kitchen ($99) features birch plywood counter tops, an electric range that lights up and cabinets as white as your own. Add on the four-piece cookware set ($9.99), which includes a wok and lidded pot, and watch your future star chef delight in its durable stainless steel and safe, rounded edges. (www.ikea.com).

n A sushi-strewn toddler dress ($30) is one of several that will appeal to fashionable gourmet youngsters. The nigiri togs are made by Brentwood's Rubina Designs and are available at Pleasanton's Berry Patch.